Thoughts on Hard Blocks in ITF Taekwon-Do

Traditional martial arts instructor Dan Djurdjevic has recently started revisiting basic techniques at his blog The Way of Least Resistance. I especially like his discussions on blocking techniques.

• Back to Basics (Blocking)
• Why Block With the Forearm (Rather than the Palm)?

Focussing on Karate-type blocks, Mr Djurdjevic defines blocks as follows:

a more correct term would be "deflection", "parry" or "interception". Generally traditional blocks are used to intercept and redirect attacks rather than stop them dead in their tracks. In karate and other Japanese/Okinawan arts these techniques are classified as "uke". "Uke" comes from the Japanese word "ukeru" meaning "to receive".

While our (ITF) system performs its fundamental movements somewhat differently from the way Mr Djurdjevic explains the traditional blocks in his system, there is enough overlap to make it valuable reading (as with most of his blog).

How do we view blocking in ITF Taekwon-Do? As I wrote in the post “Defensive Techniques in ITF Taekwon-Do” in ITF we have two categories of blocks, which I term soft blocks and hard blocks. “The purpose of a hard block is to 'attack' and hurt the opponent's attacking limb and so protect yourself. In so doing the opponent's attack is forcefully redirected.” On the other hand, “[t]he purpose of soft blocks are to deflect an attack by redirecting the force of the attack, or to unbalance the opponent using some kind of pushing motion. Unlike hard blocks that put emphasis on hurting the opponent's attacking tool, soft blocks put emphasis on redirecting [or deflecting] the force of the attack and / or breaking the opponent's equilibrium.”

Okinawa Karate practitioners doing forearm
conditioning exercises. (Source)

What I'm not reading in Mr Djurdjevic's posts on blocking is the idea that blocks are purposed to hurt the opponent as is the case with our hard blocks. Even his discussion on forearm blocks focus more on their function to deflect attacks. It seems that his approach to blocking is in line with how we use soft blocks. Hard blocks in ITF Taekwon-Do are used as attacks, albeit attacking of the opponents attacking limbs; deflection of an incoming attack is a secondary, although a very important function. (You can read of Mr. Djurdjevic's understanding of the hard block versus soft block issue here.) The emphasis on “attacking” with hard blocks in ITF Taekwon-Do becomes especially clear when you consider that some ITF instructors require their students to perform board breaking with their blocks, using for instance the forearms to “strike” through boards employing typical blocking motions like the outer forearm outward low block (the first movement in pattern Chon-Ji). Although not all instructors require their students to break boards with blocks (only one of my instructors stressed it), most Taekwon-Do instructors emphasize the conditioning of blocking tools. The idea of hard blocks being considered as attacks is also highlighted in the tournament sparring rules of one of the ITF-groups where a properly executed fundamental block can earn you a point. In other words, just as one can score a point for a punch to a target area, so too can one score a point for a proper fundamental block to your opponent's attacking limb.

There is, of course, a problem with the idea of using blocks as attacks. Blocks are reactive in nature, which means that blocks innately begin after your assailant commenced his attack. For it to be effective your hard block must be extremely fast. It is analogous to landing a punch to your opponent before his fist reaches you, even though he started his punch before you started yours. It is possible, but extremely difficult and requires super fast reflexes. This is one of the reasons why we almost never see traditional blocking in ITF tournaments even though it could score points.

Still, such attack-blocks are possible. My first instructor, Mr Johan Bolton, told me of one of his peers who specialised in blocking during tournaments. I can't remember the name of the person (I think it was one of the Ackerman-brothers). He would set out to purposefully hurt his opponent's limbs during tournaments by means of very fast and very hard blocks and when a successful block landed his opponent would shift that limb to the rear, too scared to attack with it again, lest it be hurt more. Apparently he won a number of fights by practically disarming his opponents. While I've never personally seen anybody use hard blocks in tournaments like this before, I have no reason to distrust this account by Mr Bolton. Furthermore, I have no doubt of the ability of hard blocks to damage someone as I have myself used hard blocks on someone before, only to later find out (by means of X-rays) that the blocks resulted in bone fractures.

Ridge hand (aka reverse-knife hand) block.
Source: Sonkal

Using hard blocks as attacks need not be limited to limbs only. One can just as easily use a forearm block to strike the neck of an opponent, for instance. By grabbing an opponent's wrist with one hand, you can use the other arm to perform an inward forearm block on the opponent's elbow joint. A close acquaintance of mine used an outward ridge hand block on the ear of a rowdy suspect while he was in the police force. The block resulted in severe trauma to the man's inner ear causing blood to emerge from his ear and nose. These are just a few examples of hard blocks being used, not merely to hurt attacking limbs, but as actually attacks to vital spots.

When we practise hard blocks merely as methods of deflection we are not doing them as they were meant to be used in ITF Taekwon-Do. If the focus is on merely deflecting, avoiding or surviving an incoming attack, soft blocks, body shifting and guards are better suited. I explained these in the aforementioned post: “Defensive Techniques in ITF Taekwon-Do.”


Also Read: Blocking in ITF Taekwon-Do, in which I consider five types of blocks in ITF Taekwon-Do, that go beyond the simple hard block versus soft block dichotomy.